I’m a seasonal reader. There are books I would love in winter that absolutely will not do in summer! With the end of our school year approaching on Friday, I’m craving books that are light and deep. A splash of humor could also be warranted. Seemingly impossible to meet all these demands, I assure you that it can be done. These are the ten books you want in your beach bag this summer!

College student. Writer. Coffee shop. Boston. I loved this book from the first page when Lena is trying to flirt with a guy in a coffee shop and is incredibly awkward about it. The start of the novel made me grateful to be far past my early 20s, the time of trying on various personas before finally settling into your own skin and becoming fully yourself. The novel follows Lena through the rest of her life, almost achieving a birth to death arc. It’s full of humor and enough literary references to fill my soul to the brim!

This is the beach read for smart people! It’s a collection of short stories that will make you laugh and yet are relevant and true. Curtis allows readers to glimpse into the lives of interesting people at posh parties, in taxi cabs, and at yoga studios. It is a book of short stories for readers convinced that they hate short stories!

The book that made me love Ann Patchett, a book I’ve read four times, and the first selection for my summer book club this year! Dr. Marina Singh travels into the Amazon after hearing about the death of her fellow researcher who was trying to discover the status of a fertility drug under development by their company. Her path crosses with Dr. Annick Swenson, a former mentor and adventures happen. Many people hated the ending, but I found it absolutely perfect!

Manhattan Beach, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, begins with the great depression and then drops readers into World War II. Anna is twelve at the start and lives a split life- at times accompanying her father on mysterious business deals and staying at home with her mother and severely multiply impaired sister at others.

Suddenly, we are in World War II. Anna’s father has disappeared and she fights back by working in a factory, taking care of her sister, and trying to become the first female diver. Ghosts from her past reemerge as she tries to connect the dots and determine what actually happened to her father. She is the truest example of grit!

One summer, 14-year-old Will’s grandmother dies and three weeks later his grandfather announces that he’s getting married. Not only is he getting married, but the woman is half his age! Of course, the entire town starts gossiping about the marriage and the story is both hilarious and touching.

Gilead is a book well loved by President Obama and is one to read with a pen in hand as the language is musical and the quotes are numerous. Gilead is a letter from an old, dying man to his young son- only seven at the time of the letter. If you like this book, there are others in the series although any of them could also be a stand along novel- I actually read Lila first!

I haven’t read this novel since AP English, but I’ve always had a secret desire to attend boarding school and absolutely love any novel that takes place at one. Along the same lines as “The Secret History”, a body is found at a prestigious boarding school and the whole town becomes involved trying to discover what happened.

School started this week. If you are a teacher you know what that sentence *really* means. It means that I was in an epic state of bliss the entire week and by Friday, I crashed. People say there is no tired like “first week of school” tired. I say, there is no tired like “first week of school that starts with an eclipse” tired.

Instead of resting, I filled my weekend to the brim with wieners and wine, tubing and wine, shopping, coloring parties, and other bonding activities with my cousin who was visiting me from Michigan. It was essentially the best possible weekend, especially when we added silent reading parties to the mix!

When you are reading a book that catches hold of you and won’t let go, silent reading parties are a must- with or without company! The book? Manhattan Beach, out October 3rd. Thank you, Scribner for allowing me to read it 37 days early! This is going to be one of the BIG books this fall!

Manhattan Beach, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, begins with the great depression and then drops readers into World War II. Anna is twelve at the start and lives a split life- at times accompanying her father on mysterious business deals and staying at home with her mother and severely multiply impaired sister at others. She is in absolute control of her emotions and the time spent with her father seems like an act, a show she is putting on to help her father’s image, to aid in his shady business deals.

Suddenly, we are in World War II. Anna’s father has disappeared and she fights back by working in a factory, taking care of her sister, and trying to become the first female diver. Ghosts from her past reemerge as she tries to connect the dots and determine what actually happened to her father. She is the truest example of grit!

This is a book you must read this fall so pre-order it now from your local indie bookstore!

My Bookstore edited by Ronald Rice has become my personal version of 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. Some people travel for sporting events (Cubs, anyone?), I prefer to meet authors. Years ago, I stumbled across the book after discovering Ann Patchett contributed an essay about her favorite bookstore, McLean and Eakin. Not only is McLean and Eakin in my home state, but throughout the essay she professed her love for all things Northern Michigan. Anyone who appreciates how beautiful Michigan is holds an extra special place in my heart.

Since reading the essay, I longed to go to McLean and Eakin. It’s seven hours from my apartment, but only three hours from my parents’ house and could easily be a day trip taken during a time I was already visiting Michigan. Months ago I learned that Ann was speaking there in October- on a day I was off work anyway (clearly, I work for the best school district in the WORLD who understands my passions)! I quickly bought a ticket and booked a hotel room (complete with jetted bathtub and king size bed) for a fall weekend away to meet my favorite author, a woman I love as much for her writing as for her excellent book recommendations!

After a season of not so patient waiting, October came. Those of you who read will understand the complete bliss I experienced to not only be in the same room as my favorite author while eating fancy hors d’Oeuvres and sipping wine, but in the front row and in the first seat! Previously I had only met her dog, Sparky so this was a big step! A picture with very bad lighting follows:

I arrived alone, but found plenty of other women to talk with and made friends with many classy “old ladies”, a skill I seem to have a knack for. I was brave enough to ask a question, the generous glass of wine on a previously empty stomach may have helped, and as a result learned which books I’ll receive signed copies of from the First Edition Club between now and February. The club is one of my greatest joys and I’m most looking forward to my signed copy of Lincoln in the Bardo this February! Ann talked about the book she has in her head right now and even shared the title. She answered many questions that she has discussed countless times previously, I could have answered them for her and many times I did under my breath. I would like to publicly apologize to the woman next to me.

The event left me in an epic state of bliss the remainder of the weekend. I found an incredible yoga studio, leisurely swam alone in my hotel pool, got excellent book recommendations from Alex Ness at McLean and Eakin, took advantage of Restaurant Week with my cousin who joined me Saturday, purchased sour cherry preserves at American Spoon, traveled the Tunnel of Trees, and visited more wineries than I am used to visiting on a single day. To summarize, I had the most incredible weekend and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity!

Many people have a place they go to each year and never tire of, I have found my place. Petoskey is my love. McLean and Eakin is my booktore.

When Ann Patchett’s posts on Musing became spaced months and months apart, I knew she was up to something. It’s hardly worth being bummed about infrequent blog posts from your favorite author when you suspect that the woman has locked herself in her house to write something much bigger and much better than a blog post. Finally, last spring, it was announced- Commonwealth by Ann Patchett would be on sale September 13, 2016! It’s been 6 days since its release and I’ve already read it twice- it’s that good!

Typically the first novel an author writes is the most autobiographical; instead, Ann’s first novel was about a home for unwed mothers. I saw an interview during which Ann said she wanted to go back and write an autobiographical novel, now that she was in her 50s, and that is exactly what she did.

None of it happened and all of it’s true. -Jeanne Ray

The book starts out at a baptism party for a baby in which an unwanted guest brings gin, things get crazy, and there is a kiss between two people who should not be kissing. The story follows the baby from her baptism party until she is 52 moving seamlessly throughout time delving into the world of divorce, blending families and grown children of divorced parents.

Other reviews have described the movement of time in the novel as “fluid” which is, in fact, the best way to describe the masterpiece Ann Patchett has created. Ann’s is just one of many novels that jump back and forth in time however the passage of time is just that in other books- jumpy. I’ve not read another book that managed time quite so well and it was, indeed, fluid and made the novel that much more beautiful. There are glimpses into lives at various points along the way and the reader is left to fill in the missing years on their own- a task that is quite enjoyable and effortless.

She had needed to keep something for herself.

Another aspect that I enjoyed was the presence of books throughout the novel. I’ve always loved books about books and while this was not one of those novels, there were countless books name dropped throughout the novel. Books were often used to assist the various characters during difficult times. There is nothing more comforting than a good book read at the right time and this message was made quite clear.

Life, Teresa knew by now, was a series of losses. It was other thing too, better things, but the losses were as solid and dependable as the earth itself.

Finally, I loved that this book talked about places familiar to me. Part of it took place in Chicago and Evanston, both places I’ve resided in while just starting out as a special education teacher. I cracked up as I read about where I currently live described as “the parts that aren’t Chicago” which is a common view of Illinois- Chicago and cornfields. I imagine Ann is somewhat familiar with where I live since she dated David Foster Wallace who lived not far from here although I’m not certain if he lived here while they were dating. Regardless, it’s always a fun bonus to be able to visualize from your experience the places being written about in novels.

You can debate about your favorite Ann Patchett book all you want, perhaps you liked the plot better in another novel, but no one can argue against this being her best written novel. Each novel is stronger than the novel before and allows her talent to be showcased at an even higher level. I’m so grateful that this novel exists as it fills a hole that exists in literature. So many individuals will be able to see themselves inside of this masterpiece so read it and tell me what you think!

Ann Patchett leaves for an insanely crazy book tour tomorrow during which she will essentially live in airports and survive exclusively on grilled cheese sandwiches, as she crisscrosses the entire country, tissues and vitamins in tow, attempting to avoid the inevitable book tour head cold before finally reaching the finish line in my home state of Michigan on October 22nd and declaring her freedom- or at least that is how I picture the situation at hand. It’s amazing what sort of hoops authors will jump through all in the name of selling books and yet, I am incredibly grateful because I will be there to meet her on October 21st in Petoskey. Finally, I will be able to tell people that not only do I adore Ann Patchett, but that I met her! At this point, my story is that I met her dog once… mic drop.

While signing 1,800 copies of her new book, Ann decided to keep herself entertained by attempting Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge and later wrote about it on her store’s blog! I too was curious if I could complete the challenge using books I read this year and actually ended up getting pretty close!

With the summer reading challenge behind us, I’m setting a new goal for myself! This fall, I’m going to strive to read books I already own. The reason behind this is purely selfish; In October I will visit McLean and Eiken, which I hear is incredible! In fact, it’s my favorite author’s favorite bookshop (besides her own), so I’m making room!

Right now, books I’ve read are displayed on bookshelves and books I need to read are kept in a closet, double stacked by category.

As you can see, I already have a lot of incredible books!!! Remember, these shelves are double stacked so there are even more great books hiding behind the ones you see. I also am a member of Parnassus Books’s First Edition Club so I have a few to read from that too. I refuse to have my unread books pile over beyond these shelves and I want to shop in my little bookstore this October so… I’m going to start reading!

What do you plan to read this fall?

It’s official: today marks the end of the first annual summer reading challenge at my local library 😦 Earlier this spring, I asked my library if they hosted a reading contest for adults- they didn’t, but after I mentioned it they started one! Clearly, we have the best librarian/library assistants out here in this little town!!! Now let’s recap:

Hollyhocks and Radishes by Bonnie Stewart Mickelson and Judy Chard (The best gift ever! Signed copy!)

Other Books I Read:

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (I’m uncertain of which list to put this in… summer favorite or just another book? I would give it 4.25 stars, but I can’t stop thinking about the ending… so read it and we can chat!)

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

As I Lay Dying by William Fulkner

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Gorge by Kara Richardson Whitely

Now and Again by Charlotte Rogan (I met her! Nicest lady! Signed copy!)

The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt

Missing Man by Barry Meier

A Picture Book of Louis Braille by David A. Alder

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Another Brooklyn Jacqueline Woodson (signed copy!)

The Dream Life of Astronauts by Patrick Ryan (signed copy!)

The Bully Pulpit by Dorris Kearns Goodwin (signed copy!)

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Underground Airlines by Ben Winters

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead(signed copy!)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer

The Wander Society by Keri Smith

What were your favorite summer reads?

Summer is travel season and audiobooks keep me sane as I make countless trips to Michigan each summer through construction and among the company of individuals who have watched a few too many “Pure Michigan” commercials. Michigan is pretty much amazing so who can blame them!

Many people have asked me how I listen to audiobooks and share their failed experiences. Besides making car rides more pleasant, there are two main things I like about audiobooks: first, they allow me to maximize my reading time and secondly, they make me slow down and really savor a book. My current method of listening to audiobooks involves borrowing them in CD format from the library however Playaways are also great and Audible is always an option too.

One con regarding audiobooks is that there is a tendency for your mind to wander. That is why the majority of the audiobooks I listen to are non-fiction and often, read by the author. Listening to an author read their own work is very engaging and a much more intimate experience than reading on your own. In fact, many of the audiobooks I’ll listen to repeatedly are ones read by the author. Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell is my annual “playlist” for getting my classroom ready and gets me pumped for another year of teaching and learning! With that said, on to my favorites!

Fiction:

Non-fiction:

What are your favorite audiobooks?

It was the fall of 2012 and I was living in an old civic center, across from a train station, where the upstairs offices had been converted into apartments and restaurants lay below. The train station across the street allowed me easy access to Chicago and a library stood grandly in the middle of the road as an oasis for any sort of journey one might desire. I walked to the library frequently and State of Wonder caught my eye one day. It was actually the second book I read by Ann Patchett, the second set it South America, and I loved every moment. I loved the plot, the strong female characters, and especially the ending! It took me two books to fall for Ann Patchett, but fall I did and hard. I now own all her books including books she has essays in, am a member of the First Edition Book Club at the bookstore she co-owns, and have even given her dog a belly rub- see below! I will also be purchasing a signed copy of her book newest book when it comes out this September!

Finishing a second book by a different author today caused me to realize that it takes one book to like an author, but two books to love him or her. Today I spent all day readingOlive Kitteridge, with a brief break to walk in the forest, and have officially added a new favorite author to my schema. I liked Elizabeth Strout at My Name Is Lucy Barton but love her after reading Olive.

Olive Kitteridge is actually a book of short stories, but all revolve around Olive, the high school math teacher, and the people in her Maine town. I devour a good book about New England, but what gets me about Elizabeth is her beautiful writing and her round characters.

For many years Henry Kitteridge was a pharmacist in the next town over, driving every morning on snowy roads, or rainy roads, or summertime roads, when the wild raspberries shot their new growth in brambles along the last section of town before he turned off to where the wider road led to the pharmacy. Retired now, he still wakes early and remembers how mornings used to be his favorite, as though the world were his secret, tires rumbling softly beneath him and the light emerging through the early fog, the brief sight of the bay off to his right, then the pines, tall and slender, and almost always he rode with the window partly open because he loved the smell of the pines and the heavy salt air, and in the winter he loved the smell of the cold.

Elizabeth’s writing is on a different level. The imagery draws me in and I have arrived. She stated in interviews how important it is to write a good sentence. To her, the way a sentence sounds is deeply connected to the story, to the emotions of the story. I guess this is why she won the Pulitzer for it!

In addition, her characters are so well developed, so human. I’ve heard people who hated the character of Olive because of her rudeness, but I couldn’t get enough of her. She reminds me of a relative of mine, very opinionated, who I deeply adore. It’s the story Incoming Tide that really caused me to love Olive because I felt like readers had the opportunity to see another side of her, to see beyond her shell.

I absolutely insist you give an Elizabeth Strout novel a try and add some more character-driven books to your shelves.

Every once in awhile, and it has been quite some time now, you find a book that touches every fiber of your being- your very soul. This book arrived at my door, signed by the author, and with a warning from Ann Patchett herself:

I’m sending this book out with a warning: whatever it is that needs doing, do it now. I’m talking about feeding your family, walking the dog, finishing a project for work. Don’t start reading My Name Is Lucy Barton before getting those things done. And don’t start it right before you plan to go to sleep either. You’ll be up half the night. This is one of those books that grabs you fast and hard, and by the time you’re ten pages in you’re not going to notice the world around you.

I heeded the warning. I made sure to phone my mother, meal prep, and lay out clothes for the week before driving to our local coffee shop to read the entire thing, in one sitting, without leaving my seat. Less than two hours after walking into the coffee shop, it was done. It’s that good!

The novel, which is so beautifully written I could cry, is about Lucy Barton whose mother visits her in the hospital after complications from a minor surgery. Lucy has a challenging relationship with her parents after growing up in a poverty stricken, neglectful household in the cornfields of Illinois and had not seen her mother in many years. She describes her childhood by saying,

Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me.

The stories they share over several days and the conversations they have, and do not have, are powerful and speak to the very essence of what it means to be human.

This is a story about a mother loving her daughter. Imperfectly. Because we all love imperfectly.

I wanted to write all over this book, underline phrases, write my story in the margins, scribble all over and yet refrained; it is a signed first edition after all. I simply can’t even tell you more about this, but please get a copy of My Name is Lucy Barton and tell me what you think!

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016 and the start of a brand new year ready to be filled with family, friends, and books (lots of books)! My cousins and I are participating in Popsugar’s 2016 Reading Challenge and I started the year off right by staying in my pjs to read “A book under 150 pages”.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad makes the cut at 110 pages. This book was selected because I want to complete the challenge by reading books from the very large collection of books I own, but have never read, and I also wanted to start some momentum with a smaller book. I picked up this book a few years ago when it was mentioned in an interview with Ann Patchett that many people were reminded of this novel when reading State of Wonder (one of my favorite books of all time). ***I own a signed copy of this book!***

The similarities are quite clear, both stories involve characters setting off on a mission by boat through a jungle trying to find someone who is very difficult to find and conflict ensues (thus making a story). I enjoyed this novel simply because of how similar it was to Ann’s book. I also enjoyed this story because although it’s a novel, the author had very similar experiences while working for a Belgian trading company for three years. One can judge the narrator, or author for that matter, to be racist and they would have a great deal of evidence to support that conclusion. In fact, I would not disagree; the way the Africans in the book were described was quite difficult to read at times. That said, I enjoyed reading because it offers me a viewpoint into ideas different than my own and a glimpse back into the era of colonization. Joseph Conrad wrote what he knew and that’s reflected in this book. It would be interesting to read from his contemporaries that had different viewpoints for example, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone.

Wave was recommended by my favorite author, Ann Patchett, during an interview and I finally sat down to read it. The author writes of the loss of her entire family after the tsunami in December of 2004. She was vacationing in Sri Lanka with her parents, husband, and two young sons and only she remained after the tsunami hit. The first few chapters explain what happened that day but the rest of the book shares her grieving process and how she handled the loss of everyone that was most important to her. She had to build a new life and start to heal.

I enjoyed this book because the author was incredibly honest about how she acted and the poor choices she made out of anger. She was so incredibly enraged throughout much of the book. I hope writing everything down helped her heal. If you’re in the mood for a book that is a bit more intense, check out Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala.

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Karen Evans and I write about reading! I started The Book Nook in 2012 when I discovered a large community of readers online and wanted to join the conversation. I'm a Michigander who somehow landed the best job of my life teaching 4th grade special education in Illinois! I write in the early mornings before school and read at night! My favorite authors include Ann Patchett, Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, and Donna Tartt. This is a place for me to share my passion for reading with others. If you're interested in having me review your book, please contact me at k4evans1@gmail.com